Septimus Mithlander
Septimus Mithlander is a fictional character from the Source Land setting, who is a person of importance in Source Land History who was known for having united the Westerlands. See Source Land Geography for more information on the Westerlands. He is also a major religious figure in the Helionite faith. See Source Land Religions for more information on the Helionite Faith. The Mythos The Mythos surrounding Septimus Mithlander is, at best, a simplified version of actual historical events. It is said that Septimus was the son of the Emperor of Estheim, Regis Mithlander, who was the 5th Emperor of Estheim. Septimus fought in a bloody war of succession to take his father's throne, but even though he was winning, he had a vision that it would all be for nothing, as his Empire would always and forever be plagued by power-struggles, though a comet was sighted, and was said to have shot directly out of the sun, and a prophet told him that the comet would result in a number of meteorites that would land on the planet, and one of those was the fabled Sun-Stone, and that Septimus was to journey to the Dark Lands, find the Sun-Stone, take it to where the Eternal Fire burned and extract the blessed metal from it, to then have it fashioned into a grail and go to the blessed lake and drink from the sacred waters there, and then he would meet his true bride. The Journey Septimus Journey into the Dark Lands was wrought with many small ancedotes, witness testaments of his passing and having performed incredible deeds (though not miraculous), that showed him as having the virtue of a Knight and the heart of a King. He recovered the sun-stone and ventured far to take it to the eternal flame where he melted the stone into a piece of shaped metal, which he took to the city of Sinners, who lived in contempt of the Sacred Lake. The Grail In the city of sinners, Septimus found many craftmen who claimed they could fashion him a grail from the blessed metal, but they all failed. Their tools broke and they could not shape it. Septimus knew that they were no pure at heart - for they used the Lady's Waters without giving her praise, and did not have virtue. Eventually, Septimus found a humble buckle-maker who lived on the outskirts of town. He did not trade on the river, and he and his family had always respected the sacred lake, and Septimus asked him to fashion the grail, which he did. With the Grail in hand, Septimus went to the lake, and fill his grail with the waters and drank, and it was then that the Lady appeared before him, and she was the purest of all beings, and she became his wife. The Conquest Septimus had now done as he had been bid by his God, Helios, and he still did not know how he was supposed to secure the Empire he wanted to forge for the Glory of the Gods. He looked to the skies and called out to his Lord, and his Lord heard the prayers, for he that had been blessed by the Lady, one of Helios' most devout servants, was worthy of the ear of the All-Father, and a majestic Golden Dragon appeared from the sky. Septimus rode this dragon back to his homelands, and he fought a war to conquer all who stood opposed to the will of his Lord, and he found that he had been blessed in such a way that no mortal could injure him. The Rule Septimus lived a long life, but eventually, a great threat rose in the East, as a confederation of Heretics had defiled the word of Helios and turned their backs on the Gods, and they now wanted war to impose their heretical ways upon the Empire of the Sun. Septimus defeated them, as the people turned to him for protection, but he realized that for his Empire to live on as a strong power, he had to leave them - and so, it is said that he returned to his wife, and went through the waters to live with her in her realm. The History Most of the Mythos regarding Septimus is, at best, to be considered a simplified version. In reality, Septimus was a barbarian war-lord who had a harem of wives. They said that he was a strong warrior, who seemingly adored women and had fought most of his battles to either claim his wives, or win their hands in marriage. Septimus' mother While some historical sources suggest that Septimus' father was Regis Mithlander, many sources since disputed this, as Septimus could not have been the son of Regis' wife. It seems Septimus was either from a different marriage than with the woman who is remembered as Regis' wife, but nothing in particular is known. A single source strongly suggests that Septimus' mother was known as The Dragon Prophet, and that she had been a priestess from a small secret cult of Dragon-Worshippers in Estheim, though that she had left the covenant and offered herself to Regis, having promised him an heir with the Blood of a Dragon, and that he had accepted this, as he believed that it was the destiny of the Mithlander family to have Dragon Blood in their veins, like the first famous member of the family had allegedly introduced. Supposedly, Septimus' own mother was the very same prophet who sent him on his quest to find the Sun-Stone. Septimus' Sons One of the reasons why Septimus was so successful, was that he had a great many sons, who all were great warriors in their own right. He also had so many daughters that he had developed alliances with almost all of the surrounding Clans. The Quest The Dark-Lands were initially thought to have been the Sacharan Sultanate, but it later turned out to have been Talanthia. The assumption that it meant the Sacharan Sultanate in Nothern Rahamra was probably one of the reasons why Helionites felt so strongly about declaring some of those regions to be Holy Land. The Sun-Stone The Sun-Stone most likely didn't shoot out of the sun, but like with most comets, it passed, relatively, close to the sun which was when it started becoming visible to humans, due to gasses. The meteorites that passed from the comets likely possessed some sort of metal that was, at the time, particularly difficult to melt (possibly Mithral). Other "sun-stones" have since been found Kaedwen. The Eternal Flame The Eternal Flame is believed to be a sacred fire, but in reality, it is a Dwarven Spell-Forge found in a small mountain stronghold that has long since been abandoned. It is largely unknown how the structure continues to burn, seemingly without any fuel-source, but experts say that the fires in the forge are actually not what allows the forge to work - it is the intense heat created by some sort of unknown force. The flames itself are just byproducts of the stones that the forge are made from, being heated up to extreme temperatures. Toussaint Tousssaint was the so-called City of Sinners, renamed to honor Septimus himself, the castle there, Beauclair, was named to honor the buckle-maker who forged the Grail. Calling it a city-of-sin may not have been historically justified, as it was little more than a trade-central for local indigenous people - though in the eyes of Septimus himself, they were heretics who all worshiped the Old Gods. It is likely that the same applied to the buckle-maker, though he may specifically have worshiped the Old God known as the Lady of the Lake, who has been adopted into the Helionite Canon as a servant of Helios. The Lady of the Lake The Lady is, according to Elven Sources, actually a very interesting entity in her own right. Supposedly, she was a Dragon-Whisperer, which was what Elves called those that had been chosen to be diplomats with the Dragons, often having some sort of draconic ancestry themselves. She was actually a Water-Nymph, which - back then, were still regarded as part of the Elven People (the Fae-Kind were once more united). She, supposedly somehow ascended to a type of God-Hood, becoming an Old-God, though there are various accounts of how this happened, but she was a worshiper of the Eldar Gods (from which Modern Helionism sprung). The conquest Septimus may have learned Sorcery and Witchcraft from the lady, as well as possibly obtaining the secret of "Dragon-Whispering" (whatever that means). He returned like a fury upon his old lands, instating his Grandsons into positions of power, as his Grandsons had, by the time Septimus returned, sired their own children already, and Septimus lived to an unnatural age. He butchered scores of people, as punishment for not submitting to his rule, and enslaved many people too - at least this was the perspective of many of the conquered, but those that stood with him saw it differently. "When you stand before Septiumus; The Slaughterer of Free-Men, it doesn't matter if you hold your ground with your sword in hand, or if you run until the end of the world, because history will not remember, and only your rotting bones will tell of your passing in the world as you are unmade by the sword of the Slaughterer himself. If you hope to live,you fall to your knees and call him King. '' ''Wise men do not stand before him at all, they stand behind him, and call him Emperor, while they themselves are called Princes" The War against the Orient The Orient was actually a territory of the Empire, and the Orient still reveres Septimus as an important figure. That said, Septimus did wage war against them, and they seemingly used their technology to rebuke him, and it appears they may have shot him down as he flew in on a dragon, in an attempt to subdue them through shock-and-awe. Officially, Septimus was said to have departed to be with his wife, however, as the Empire could not bear to lose their Lord in combat. Some sources seem to indicate that he actually crashed on an Island, and also suggests that one of his many wives along with his mother and his rarely mentioned sister all went to search for him, and if local folk-lore on the Island of Tamera speaks the truth, they discovered that he had been prevented from leaving the Island by an Old God that had been an enemy of the Lady of the Lake, and he had died because of this, and their fury was so grand that they avenged him through a thousand live-times and still mourn his loss on that island, their very anger and sadness keeping them alive.